We filed for K-1 but now want to get married

[Beauty for Ashes 257]

By all means get married for your Mother.

Just make sure you contact the USCIS and tell them you want to abandon your K1!

Good luck and best wishes.

Rick

An option you may or may not like is simply to have a wedding ceremony without the legal or visa process related ramifications of marriage. This would honor your Canadian family members and keep your process going. I realize this isn't for everybody. It wouldn't work for me but you may want to give it some consideration.

I'll add my assurance to that of others and say, you absolutely can marry, then withdraw your fiance visa petition and start a spouse visa process. It is a frequent occurance.

Don't withdraw the fiancee visa. the spouse petition is a pain in the butt compared to the easy fiancee visa thing. trust me i know

[Misty1979 0]

I live in Canada and my fiance is in the U.S. He filed for K-1 in July (strangely, he hasn't even gotten delivery confirmation yet), but my mother has advanced cancer and may not be able to wait till February when our petition is (hopefully) processed.

My fiance is coming for a visit next week, and wants to know why we can't just get married-- here in Canada --before he returns to the U.S. I know the wait is a little longer for the K-3, but if that's all, I guess I can live with it so my mom can be there.

Is it legal to do this, and can cancelling the K-1 and re-applying for K-3 be done without repercussions?

Thanks so much. CB

Just going to throw this in here, but also, if you live in western Canada, your K1 visa is likely to be much much quicker than a CR1 visa would be. If you manage to fall into the Vancouver consulate's jurisdiction, their interview waiting list is only about 3 weeks long for K1 visas, whereas with a CR1 you have to interview in Montreal, and their wait list is at least 2 months, probably closer to 4 or 5 right now.

So if you do live in western Canada, and it is strictly time you are looking at, the K1 may still be an option for you.

Good luck with your journey and I'm sorry to hear about your mother.

Edited: Nevermind, just looked at your profile info and noticed you are from Toronto. Montreal would be the consulate you'll be stuck with either way...unless you were to move to BC (it's been done before just for the visa process, heh.)

Edited August 25, 2007 by Misty1979

[G&A 1]

Pushbrk idea is a good one if it works for you. We were gong the K1 route before and last minute decided to get married and do the K3. Our initial plan was to have a religious wedding in Edmonton, AB with the church, the reception, everything. So it is official for the parents but there is no marriage license involved.

Good luck withwhat you decide and very sorry to hear about your mom.

[Reba 2]

An option you may or may not like is simply to have a wedding ceremony without the legal or visa process related ramifications of marriage. This would honor your Canadian family members and keep your process going. I realize this isn't for everybody. It wouldn't work for me but you may want to give it some consideration.

I'll add my assurance to that of others and say, you absolutely can marry, then withdraw your fiance visa petition and start a spouse visa process. It is a frequent occurance.

with the marriage laws the way they're written in Ontario (perhaps most other provinces), this option is not possible. unless their "wedding" is officiated by someone who is not legally permitted to officiate marriages. A priest, pastor, minister, etc who is currently licensed by the province to perform weddings cannot perform a "non-legal" ceremony. And most will not even consider doing it. Other Canadians have tried to do this and could not, because of the marriage laws, and/or church rules.

canabird, are you the same one as over at CanuckAbroad? Your situation seems to have changed rather a lot.

[canabird 0]

Hi Reba, I PM'd you. My situation has changed more than a little. My fiance just found out the wait time for the first NOAs is up to 90 days, and yes, it is because of the price hike in July. Who even knows how much longer it will be delayed if there are errors in the application.

Thanks all for the well wishes and support about my mother. I now feel better about getting married now. Talking of delays, her chemotherapy keeps being delayed due to low blood count. It was supposed to be over in the spring. She has part of her intestine in a colostomy bag, and of course they can't reattach it until after the chemo is complete. Poor thing is worried so much about 'bag noises" in public. This is probably a bad place to post this, but we should all pay more attention to our digestive health, and get a colonoscopy (however unpleasant) before common benign growths turn cancerous. My mom's attention ruptured because she ignored stomach pain, and the cancer was already at stage 4.

CB

p.s. wahrania, your daughter (?) is gorgeous!

Edited August 27, 2007 by canabird